Amazon in EU Crosshairs as Vestager Fights Big Tech To the End 32
Amazon.com faces a full-blown European Union antitrust probe as the bloc's competition chief Margrethe Vestager prepares for a summer finale to her five-year crackdown on U.S. technology giants. From a report: The Dane, who heads the EU's competition division, is poised to open a formal investigation into Amazon within days, according to two people familiar with the case, who asked not to be named because the process isn't public. Vestager has hinted for months that she wanted to escalate a preliminary inquiry into how Amazon may be unfairly using sales data to undercut smaller shops on its Marketplace platform. By ramping up the probe, officials can start to build a case that could ultimately lead to fines or an order to change the way the Seattle-based company operates.
Re: EU is stupid! (Score:2)
Ugh...if they were that âoeabusiveâ, you could put a stop to it yourself by not doing business with them.
Re:Another retroactive tax (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon is an EU company as well as being a US company. It has subsidiaries in the EU, does billions of Euros of business here, and is incorporated in Luxembourg. It provides jobs for the EU, and it should pay its fair share of EU taxes.
Rather than getting upset about this, you should wonder why US politicians allow US companies to hide vast profits offshore and avoid paying their fair share.
Re: (Score:1)
That is because this is an investigation into suspected violations of anti-trust laws, which have nothing to do with taxes whatsoever. From a month-old official press release: [europa.eu]
Antitrust: Commission opens formal investigation into Amazon's e-book distribution arrangements
Brussels, 11 June 2015
The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into certain business practices by Amazon in the distribution of electronic books ("e-books"). The Commission will in particular investigate certain cl
Re:Another retroactive tax (Score:4, Insightful)
EU can't compete, so they retroactively tax the winner.
You do know she has done the same to EU companies not complying with EU laws and regulations? I'd rather live here in the EU where they'll enforce laws passed by elected representatives than in the USA where the only freedom you have is what the large corporations decide you can have, the US Constitution long since been ripped in two by lots of fat brown envelopes full of money handed out to politicians by big business and the likes of the NRA.
Re: (Score:2)
How can you compete against cheaters?
Competition _is_ important (Score:3)
And well managed companies, also the large ones, should be happy with being in competitive markets.
It makes it more fair to everyone, also the big ones, and there is less of a risk that disruptive technologies suddenly appears, because with a competitive market, development is more fluid, whereas a non-competitive market has more development going on, beneath the surface.
So, large companies should actually be even more happy about being in competitive markets.
It is a very old fashioned thinking, to try to control the complete market, and suck up all the capital, because as well connected as the world is today, everything moves quicker than ever.
Works OK for a while (Score:1)
Have to be pretty careful about this. Parasites attempt to suck as much out of the host organism they can without killing it. Until someone invents DDT.
Flamebait (Score:5, Informative)
She hasn't run a 5 year crackdown on US tech giants. She has been just as tough if not tougher on EU companies.. In other words.. SHE HAS BEEN DOING HER JOB!
Re:Flamebait (Score:5, Informative)
Because the Yankistanis and the US Tech Giant shills only follow US news and what happens to the particular company they shill for.
If you do a case search in the EU database, you'll find LOTS of antitrust/anti-cartel cases against EU companies, and with greater punishments, relative to the size of the company/percentage of revenue.
But that doesn't matter to them, because it's all a case of "Amerika Akbahru Amerika Akbahru" and "heil Google, heil Apple, heil Amazon", while they whine about corruption and dysfunctional antitrust in the US in newsposts about the US government etc, or when Microsoft is involved.
These companies (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)